Abbe Pierre, French priest and champion of the homeless, Jan. 22

Abbe Pierre, French priest and champion of the homeless, Jan. 22

AP, file

Abbe Pierre, French priest and champion of the homeless, Jan. 22 Abbe Pierre, the French priest who used prayer and provocation to tackle misery and homelessness, died at Val de Grace military hospital in Paris on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007. He was 94. The founder of the international Emmaus Community for the poor, Abbe Pierre had served as a spokesman for France's conscience since the 1950s when he persuaded parliament to pass a law  still on the books  forbidding landlords to evict tenants during winter months. The reason: A 3-month-old infant had frozen to death in a broken down bus that served as the family's home. Abbe Pierre  a code name from his World War II days  topped polls as France's most beloved public figure year after year. He was a former monk, Resistance fighter and parliamentarian. "I'm not by temperament a man of anger," Abbe Pierre said in 1994. "But when I must denounce something that destroys man, I get mad." Here, Abbe Pierre poses in Paris by the model of a house for the homeless that was covered with real bank notes by visitors in 1954.

Abbe Pierre, French priest and champion of the homeless, Jan. 22 Abbe Pierre, the French priest who used prayer and provocation to tackle misery and homelessness, died at Val de Grace military hospital in Paris on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007. He was 94. The founder of the international Emmaus Community for the poor, Abbe Pierre had served as a spokesman for France's conscience since the 1950s when he persuaded parliament to pass a law  still on the books  forbidding landlords to evict tenants during winter months. The reason: A 3-month-old infant had frozen to death in a broken down bus that served as the family's home. Abbe Pierre  a code name from his World War II days  topped polls as France's most beloved public figure year after year. He was a former monk, Resistance fighter and parliamentarian. "I'm not by temperament a man of anger," Abbe Pierre said in 1994. "But when I must denounce something that destroys man, I get mad." Here, Abbe Pierre poses in Paris by the model of a house for the homeless that was covered with real bank notes by visitors in 1954. (AP, file)

Abbe Pierre, French priest and champion of the homeless, Jan. 22 Abbe Pierre, the French priest who used prayer and provocation to tackle misery and homelessness, died at Val de Grace military hospital in Paris on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007. He was 94. The founder of the international Emmaus Community for the poor, Abbe Pierre had served as a spokesman for France's conscience since the 1950s when he persuaded parliament to pass a law  still on the books  forbidding landlords to evict tenants during winter months. The reason: A 3-month-old infant had frozen to death in a broken down bus that served as the family's home. Abbe Pierre  a code name from his World War II days  topped polls as France's most beloved public figure year after year. He was a former monk, Resistance fighter and parliamentarian. "I'm not by temperament a man of anger," Abbe Pierre said in 1994. "But when I must denounce something that destroys man, I get mad." Here, Abbe Pierre poses in Paris by the model of a house for the homeless that was covered with real bank notes by visitors in 1954.